My Future
by MissLisaJade
Summary: Origionally written as a submission to the Big Finish short story competition, tells the story of Annie who meets 3 different Doctors at 4 stages of her life  aged 8, 12, 15 and 18. Aged 8 the Doctor knows all about Annie but aged 15 he's forgotten her...


Whilst you wait for the next installment of "Ressurection of the Time Lords" here is the entry I did for the Big Finish short competition. I didn't win so I thought I'd publish it here!

Reviews are love -

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The first time I met him I was five. He wore a straw hat and carried an umbrella. The noise of his machine had awoken me that night and I had looked out the window to see a blue box and watch the Doctor emerge from it followed by a teenage girl who wore a black bomber jacket. The front door of Mum's ground-floor flat slammed and I hid under the covers for safety. 

I could hear the girl talking to the Doctor and see their silhouettes through my half-open door "But Professor…" she began but the Doctor cut her off.

He called me in a soft whisper, "Annie, Anastasia. Don't be afraid, we're friends you haven't yet met. May we come in?"

I squeaked a reply and the Doctor and the girl carefully entered, closing the door behind them. I was confused as to how this man knew me and how he had got into the house. I figured that they must have been sent from my Daddy in Heaven. "Are you Angels?" I asked from under my blanket.

"No Annie," The girl said quietly. "I'm Ace, and this is the Doctor. You don't know us yet, but we know you."

I was still cowering under the covers but the girl's voice was reassuring and when I peeped out I could see that Ace had a friendly face despite a slight sadness in her eyes. The Doctor's face was old and worried but also benevolent. He was studying a pocket watch.

"Annie we don't have much time, you need to trust us and come outside." He urged, "It's very important."

At first I shook my head but then the girl reached out a hand for me to hold. I took it and went over to my door to get my dressing gown.

The Doctor and Ace took me downstairs, out the front door and into the front garden. It was a warm night so when I shivered I thought it strange. I could feel something making my hairs stand up on end and my heart race. I stopped and could hear the blood throbbing in my ears. I felt sick and dizzy.

There was a loud bang and some snarling. When I looked behind me I saw something amazing: three huge slavering lizard-like creatures towering over the Doctor. I heard him shout something, but I could barely make it out through the pounding in my ears.

I then felt Ace pick me up and take me through the doors of the blue box and set me down on the floor of a large, white room. The Doctor followed soon after and rushed over to a console in the centre of the room. He pulled a lever and the doors closed. The creatures could still be heard clawing and banging on the doors.

"Don't worry, they'll de-materialise in a few minutes." The Doctor reassured me. Sure enough the banging stopped moments later.

"Are you alright sweetheart?" Ace had asked crouching down next to me. I was still frozen with fear but Ace's warmth had brought me back to real life. I gave a sniff and then began wailing the cry of a terrified child.

Despite the trauma of my first encounter with the Doctor, something made me immediately trust him. For the next few years my school paintings had been of blue boxes, "big girls" in bomber jackets and kindly men with straw hats and funny umbrellas. When I began writing stories, they were full of adventures of the Doctor and Ace, saving other children from monsters.

Over time I began wondering whether the Doctor and Ace, the monsters and the dissapearing blue box, which was bigger inside than out, were part of an over-active childhood imagination or a particulaly vivid dream. Real or not, I was convinced I would never see the Doctor again.

But at the age of twelve I did meet the Doctor again. He was alone this time and when he had told me who he was I hadn't believed him as he looked completely different. It was cold and I was walking home from school when he stopped me in the abandoned supermarket car park.

"You aren't the Doctor!" I said, suspiciously eyeing the tall man with curly brown hair and opulent, Victorian clothing.

"Anastasia, you need to believe me! I'm the Doctor! I'll show you my TARDIS, will you believe me then?"

I eventually agreed to go with him. He diverted me from my walk home from school and took me by the hand. We walked behind the building of the supermarket and standing against the wall was the blue box. I began to feel dizzy again.

"Doctor I'm feeling dizzy." I warned him, feeling the deja-vu of my childhood memory.

He checked a pocket watch, "Here come the Lartoons." He told me.

There was a bang in the distance and some moments later, around the corner careered the three lizard creatures. They were working up a horrendous speed, but the Doctor stayed put and counted under his breath "three….. two…. one!" There was another bang and they disappeared again. The Doctor then turned to me. "Are you ok Annie?"

I nodded. I was ok and had been old enough to deal with the experience a little better this time.

"Annie I need to tell you something important. I shouldn't really but I'm afraid that if I don't then the next few times I see you I won't be able to protect you from the Lartoons. You must remember this." I nodded seriously. "The next time I see you I won't remember you. I will look different again but I will appear in my TARDIS, that blue box there. You need to go into the TARDIS as soon as you feel dizzy, as soon as you know the Lartoons are coming. Alright?" I nodded again. "After that I will see you again one last time." The Doctor looked particulaly uncomfortable saying this. "You must hold on." He said, cryptically.

"Hold on to what?" I asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "If I say any more it may cause dire consiquences." The Doctor turned and gave me one last look. "Goodbye Anistasia." He said.

"But if you'll see me again then it isn't goodbye!" The Doctor just smiled in response. He shut the doors to the TARDIS and with a whirring noise it disappeared.

When I next saw the Doctor I was 15. As he had said, he had changed again and didn't recognise me this time. But when I saw his TARDIS materialise in the park I had been sitting in, reading in the light of dusk, I knew it was him. He had sandy blonde hair but sported a long, beige coat. He emerged from the TARDIS with another girl who looked older than Ace.

"…. No Tegan I don't know…" He was saying to the girl.

"Doctor!" I had cried, running toward him as he emerged, "That is you Doctor, isn't it?"

The Doctor was taken aback, "Yes" he replied slowly "I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

I immediately became dizzy again.

"We need to get inside the TARDIS." I told him.

The Doctor and Tegan looked very confused but obliged and opened the door of the blue box. We got inside just in time but whilst rushing to the TARDIS I scratched my hand on a thorn from a nearby holly bush. The Lartoons materialised just as Tegan stepped inside. She screamed as the Doctor closed the TARDIS doors.

"Doctor, what were those things?" She shouted over the noise of the banging on the TARDIS door.

The Doctor thought for a moment before replying "Well, I've never seen them before and they don't belong on Earth in the late 20th Centaury that's for sure! Maybe this young lady could tell us more about them."

I had just caught my breath back and the dizziness was subsiding. I realised I was dripping blood onto the TARDIS' console which I steadied myself with. I licked the scratches on my hand to stop the bleeding and attempted to explain. "My name is Anastasia and those creatures were Lartoons. I have no idea where they came from or what they are, but I do know that every time they have tried to attack me you, Doctor, have been there to save me."

The Doctor looked confused. "You would have thought I would remember you then." He was silently in thought for a few moments, his brow furrowed. "Perhaps I know you from my future." He eventually suggested.

"How can you know me in the future? We met when I was five years old!"

The Doctor shook his head "Not _the_ future, _my_ future."

Tegan spoke up, "The Doctor makes it difficult to know what's past, present and future sometimes."

"Quite right, Tegan!" The Doctor exclaimed in a gleeful and proud manner. Tegan just looked a little annoyed and rolled her eyes. "This is the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space and it's my time and space ship. It can travel anywhere but when I spotted something strange on the TARDIS' scanner I thought I had better follow it. It was moving very erratically through the Time Vortex and I thought that I had better make sure it wasn't going to do any damage. I tracked it and ended up materialising here and now."

I thought back to what the Doctor had said the last time I had met him. At the time I thought he could somehow see into the future but now I realised that he had been to my future in his TARDIS.

"You know Anastasia, you could join us if you wanted to. You might be safer in the TARDIS with me if these 'Lartoons' keep attacking you." The Doctor said.

I did consider this for a few moments but knew I couldn't. I couldn't just leave Mum behind. Dad had died in a car accident before I was born and I was the only family she had. I loved the Doctor but could not leave home with this strange man. I had, after all, only met him twice previously and although I did trust him, there was a difference between trusting someone and living with them.

I politely declined and said my goodbyes to the Doctor and Tegan. I watched the TARDIS disappear before returning to my book.

It was a long time before I saw the Doctor again and I did wonder if I ever would. But the final time I saw the Doctor was when I was 18. I was living in halls at my university and doing some catching up in the library. It was late and the library was mostly empty. I liked to study late as it was quiet enough for me to concentrate. I was deep in concentration writing my essay until I began to feel dizzy and queasy.

I hared a bang and then some crashing and growling. I looked up from my notes to see something large prowling in the shadows of the darkened library. I knew it was the Lartoons but where was the Doctor?

I ducked behind a bookshelf hoping he would arrive soon. While I sat there I began to think. What exactly was it the Lartoons wanted from me? Were they mindless, or could they be reasoned with?

After a while I realised that the Doctor was not coming any time soon. I had a choice: sit and wait for the Lartoons to find me or try to communicate.

I stood up suddenly and shouted "Hey! I'm here but I want to know one thing!"

The Lartoons stood and growled for a moment that seemed like hours. I was terrified, waiting for them to pounce on me and rip me apart with their claws that looked razor sharp.

But they did not pounce, they seemed to consider my request and their growl turned into a "What?"

"What do you want from me and why?" I tried to ask as calmly as it was possible to under the circumstances.

They snarled again but then, to my surprise one answered. "You caused this! Your people banished the Lartoons by stopping us from materialising permanently, driving most of us to madness then death. Only now that we three have found a way to lock ourselves together, are we able to avenge our species by driving your species to death!"

"The Human race? You're going to wipe us out? But you can't… I mean how did we…?"

Another Lartoon interrupted me. "We haven't much time!" he told the others "NOW!!!"

I don't think that I really knew what was happening. All I really was aware of was searing pain, blood, panic, fear, a bang and then blackness.

"Annie, Annie wake up! Please Annie say I'm not too late!" said a voice from beyond the blackness. There was still excruciating pain but it was dull and distant now. My head swam but when I opened my eyes I knew exactly who it was.

"Doctor…" I muttered.

"Don't speak." The Doctor hushed.

Over his shoulder I could see a girl with a worried expression. "Ace…" This seemed to confuse her. The pain throbbed and I grimaced. "Doctor why…?" I asked but he pushed a bloodied finger to my lips. His clothes were stained with my blood.

"I know what you're going to ask, and I'll give you the answer, the Ambulance is coming but if I tell you, promise you'll hold on." _You must hold on_. Now two Doctor's had told me to 'hold on'. I did my best to nod.

"You have a trace of Agrilasia blood in you. The Agrilasia were an alien race that was wiped out, yet you seem to have a trace of their blood within you: perhaps a distant ancestor who decided to cross-pollinate. The Agrilasia were wiped out by the time-shifting Lartoons but before the last one perished they tried to protect themselves by developing a way of stopping the Lartoons from materialising for more than about a minute at a time."

I opened my mouth to ask how the Doctor knew this ancestry but he put his fingers to my lips again and answered my question.

"When you cut your finger the first time I met you, I decided to analyse your blood.

I nodded. I could hear the ambulance in the distance and began to see the blue lights outside the windows, but I was in so much pain and I felt so tired. I now understood why the Lartoons had done this to me and felt a kind of peace. I began to close my eyes.

"Stay awake Annie!" The Doctor urged,

"Goodbye Ace, don't look at me in that sad way. Goodbye Doctor and thank you." I breathed a final breath and let myself rest.


End file.
